DigiTimes Research, the market research paid subscription arm of DigiTimes, released an analysis predicting Apple’s iPads sales will decrease almost 40 percent for the first quarter of 2016, and nearly 20 percent on the year.
Overall, DigiTimes Research believes almost 47 million tablets will be shipped worldwide this quarter, including 21.5 million tablets by brand vendors and 15.4 million tablets by white-box vendors. If DigiTimes Research is correct, that would mean a roughly 25 percent decrease in sales for both of those categories.
This would leave the Apple iPad gobbling up about 20 percent of the overall tablet market, for a grand total of roughly 10 million iPad units shipped, according to DigiTimes Research. Its analysis puts Samsung Electronics as second-in-line, comprising about 14 percent of the overall market.
“7-inch models will account for 35.4% of shipments,” DigiTimes Research said. “7.9-inch [will account for] 13.8%, 8.x-inch 6.1%, 9.x-inch 23.8%, 10.x-inch 10.1% and 11-inch and above 10.8%.”
9to5Mac wasn’t too convinced on the veracity of the analysis, however, referencing DigiTimes “patchy track-record [as a] source.” 9to5Mac did point out that Apple’s iPad sales have been declining for the past two years , but then followed that up with another nugget of wisdom: Apple is still the king of the tablet market, by far.
For example, the iPad Pro, the niche high-end model of the iPad, trumped Microsoft’s Surface Pro line in sales, with Apple selling 2 million iPad Pros to Microsoft’s 1.6 million Surface devices. These sales figures include the Surface 3 and Surface 4 in addition to the Surface Pro 4, according to TechnoBuffalo .
Apple is expected to release an update to its iPad Air line in approximately a month during the Apple March 2016 Event, reportedly scheduled for March 18 . Called the iPad Air 3, while it have some updated internals it will reportedly not have the 3D Touch feature first seen in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. However, it seems like the iPad Air 3 will be able to use iPad Pro only accessories , such as the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
